Sermon Tone Analysis

©June 26th, 2022 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Isaiah

A few years ago, there was a very popular Bible study that looked at the Bible from a unique perspective.

It looked at the whole Bible as telling one consistent story throughout.

This wasn’t just any story, it was God’s story—the one He had in mind before the world was even created!

(If this sounds like a study you’d like…Cindy’s class is doing it right now and you’d be welcome to join it!)

The value of this study is that it changes the way we look at the Bible.

Rather than being just a collection of stories from history, we realize that each of these stories reveal a part of His Story.

Our passage this morning reminds us of how true this is.

It reminds us that God is in control of all things and is ultimately working all things to accomplish His purposes.

This is a challenging truth, but if we learn to embrace it, we find that it is also a wonderfully encouraging truth as well.

This morning we pick up at the end of Isaiah 44 and the beginning of Isaiah 45, where God gives the people of Israel a glimpse of what He is going to do in the future.

As He does so, He reminds them that He can be trusted, no matter what.

That message is one we desperately need to hear and embrace today as well.

As we walk through this passage, we will see several truths that should impact the way we live our lives.

Truth #1: God is the Driving Force in Redemption

As we look at the opening verses of our passage, we see God declaring some foundational truths.

21 “Pay attention, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel.

I, the Lord, made you, and I will not forget you.

22 I have swept away your sins like a cloud.

I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist.

Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.”

23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done this wondrous thing.

Shout for joy, O depths of the earth!

Break into song, O mountains and forests and every tree!

For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and is glorified in Israel.

(Isaiah 44:21-23, NLT)

What is God saying through Isaiah in these verses?

He tells the people of Israel that He will not forget them, and that He has taken care of their sins and will bring restoration.

Remember the situation.

The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the nation of Assyria because of their sin.

Now, God was condemning the sin of the southern kingdom of Judah.

He had declared that they would be conquered and carried off into exile because their sin.

Soon, the nation of Babylon would do exactly that.

So, it would be tempting for the people of Israel and Judah to conclude that God had forgotten about them or turned His back on them forever, but God says that is not the case at all.

Rather, He is continuing to work behind the scenes to redeem them.

God does not declare that He will restore Israel because they are good, or because they had somehow paid for their sin.

Rather, Isaiah makes it clear that it is the Lord who is doing the restoration and payment for sin.

It is the Lord who has redeemed them.

It is the Lord who has swept away their sins like a cloud.

God is reminding His people that He does not forget them, and that He alone provides the means for their forgiveness and restoration.

This was true 3,000 years ago, and it is still true today.

The Christian faith starts with the recognition that we cannot save ourselves.

It begins with the understanding that we are profoundly and radically messed up by sin, and that we cannot do anything to erase the bad things we have done in the past.

But the good news is that God doesn’t require us to pay for our sin.

Instead, He sent Jesus into the world to do what we could not.

It doesn’t matter what is in our past, if we will trust in what Jesus has already done for us, we can experience the forgiveness and restoration of God.

But we must never forget who the active party in our salvation is.

It isn’t us.

It is God.

In our Sunday School class, I’m fond of asking the question: what did we contribute to our salvation?

The answer is nothing, except for sin.

God is the One who does the restoring.

We are simply the gracious recipients.

If we understand that, it drives us to worship the Lord, which is exactly what Isaiah says is the correct response.

Our salvation isn’t about bringing honor to us, but about bringing honor to God.

Just as God reminded the people of Israel and Judah that He had not forgotten them and that He was working to bring them to Himself, He does the same for you and me today.

And our response should be the same: humble worship.

Truth #2: God is Writing His Story

The second lesson we see in our passage reminds us that God is in control of everything that happens, and as such, He can speak with great confidence about the future—because He controls it!

24 This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer and Creator: “I am the Lord, who made all things.

I alone stretched out the heavens.

Who was with me when I made the earth?

25 I expose the false prophets as liars and make fools of fortune-tellers.

I cause the wise to give bad advice, thus proving them to be fools.

26 But I carry out the predictions of my prophets!

By them I say to Jerusalem, ‘People will live here again,’ and to the towns of Judah, ‘You will be rebuilt; I will restore all your ruins!’ 27 When I speak to the rivers and say, ‘Dry up!’ they will be dry.

28 When I say of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,’ he will certainly do as I say.

He will command, ‘Rebuild Jerusalem’; he will say, ‘Restore the Temple.’

” (Isaiah 44:24-28, NLT)

God reminds His people that He is in control of all things.

He made the heavens and the earth and didn’t need anyone else’s help.

He again contrasts the false gods of the day with himself.

He says he puts lies into the mouths of the false prophets (to show they aren’t real), but He carries out the predictions of His own prophets.

He reminds the people that He alone is trustworthy, and when He speaks of the future, we should listen.

After that, tells Judah what will happen in the future.

He says that Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the people will live there again.

We don’t know exactly when Isaiah made this prophecy.

If it was before Babylon had destroyed Judah, it would have surely been shocking to the people, because they were still living there!

The idea that Judah would be rebuilt would seem crazy, since it was still standing.

But even if it was after the destruction of Judah, it would be hard for the people to imagine they would ever return, because the situation was bleak.

In either case, the message is the same: God is sovereign over what happens in our lives.

Which brings us to one of the most startling prophecies we read in Isaiah.

In verse 28, God identifies a specific man named Cyrus, who will give the order for the Israelites to return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.

That’s a pretty specific prophecy!

We know from scripture and secular history (unsurprisingly) that exactly what God predicted is what happened.

Listen to what we read about in the book of Ezra,

In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah.

He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom:

2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.

He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem.

And may your God be with you! 4 Wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock, as well as a voluntary offering for the Temple of God in Jerusalem.”

(Ezra 1:1-4, NLT)

Ezra records that this prophecy was fulfilled just as God said it would be.

He speaks of Jeremiah’s prophecy, which was similar to Isaiah’s.

Both were fulfilled when King Cyrus of Persia ordered the nation of Israel to return to their homeland and rebuild their cities and their temple.

And not only that, he ordered their neighbors to give them supplies to do so!

The point of this prediction was to drive home a very simple, but important point.

God is in control of all things.

He knows what is going to happen in the future, and He is working behind the scenes to accomplish His purposes.